# What was the last culturally significant poem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** poetry\ **Created:** [December 21, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919 "2025-12-21T18:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/61 "2025-12-22T01:28:09Z")
Though another Lander recently co-wrote (and recited) an original poem for the reopening of Manhattan’s Delacorte Theater: > **[Is Brad Lander’s original Shakespeare in the Park sonnet any good?](https://lithub.com/is-brad-landers-original-shakespeare-in-the-park-sonnet-any-good/)** > > I’ve updated this article to include Lander’s sonnet co-writer Chloe Chik, and links to previous sonnets Lander has performed. Brad Lander’s having a great summer. From bravely standing up to ICE t… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/62 "2025-12-22T01:29:01Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > How about Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb,” from Joe Biden’s inauguration? I’m not sure if it truly fits what you’re talking about, but it’s the first thing that came to mind. Just adding my vote here. I know evil made a comeback in 2025, but her poem in 2021 just hit so hard after almost losing the nation January 6. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/63 "2025-12-22T01:39:15Z")
Yeah, fair point, “Footprints” is probably more culturally embedded but only in the US (and maybe other English-speaking countries to a lesser extent). “If I Must Die” is bound to have a higher profile globally. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/64 "2025-12-22T02:06:53Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Yeah, fair point, “Footprints” is probably more culturally embedded but only in the US (and maybe other English-speaking countries to a lesser extent). I wouldn’t be too sure. The American evangelical Christian movement has been very influential world wide. I wouldn’t be surprised if “Footprints” has spread with it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/65 "2025-12-22T02:21:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Why should some of his verses called “poems” and other “songs”? Which one does the artist prefer? Or- which one actually makes money. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And which caused no small amount of disagreement in the poetry and literature world, Not to mention, he was actually popular and well known. Look at the list since 2000- how many had anyone here heard of before they got the prize? > [@Smapti](#): > > I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned “First They Came”. Very solid and moving but it was in 1946. How many of us were even born then? > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > For a time in the 1970s, [“Deteriorata”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deteriorata) probably was the best-known poem in America. That always gave me a chuckle. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Calvin Trillin’ _Alice, Lets ea_t is hilarious and will make anyone hungry. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/66 "2025-12-22T02:28:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Very solid and moving but it was in 1946. I’d argue it’s probably better known than most of the more recent examples being cited in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/67 "2025-12-22T02:53:25Z")
Yes, didn’t realize it had been autocorrected until after it was too late to change it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/68 "2025-12-22T03:32:37Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > How well-known is “Footprints” outside of the English-speaking world? How well-known is “If I Must Die”? I’m not sure that “outside of the English-speaking world” is a fair criterion, since poetry usually suffers much more in translation than other forms of literature. Though lands speaking other languages doubtless have their own native poetry that isn’t well-known in English, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/69 "2025-12-22T03:51:13Z")
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is 1945, so too late, but Randall Jarrell went to my high school, so I have to mention it. From 2016 by a 6-year-old kid in DC: > The tiger > He destroyed his cage > Yes > YES > The tiger is out ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/70 "2025-12-22T04:04:22Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I don’t think it compares in cultural impact, though Possibly but the question is not what’s the most culturally impactful modern poem, it’s what’s the most recent culturally impactful poem. All three are culturally impactful, and Still I Rise is the most recent. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/71 "2025-12-22T04:15:48Z")
I haven’t heard of most of the poems y’all are talking about. Now, i suppose I’m culturally out of it, but i think a lot of “poetry set to music” has had more cultural impact. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/72 "2025-12-22T05:08:33Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > “If I must die”, by Refaat Alareer. I’d say that’s may be the answer to the OP. It wasn’t super influential in the English speaking world (I had vaguely heard of it and the story around it’s author’s death). But if me, a non-arabic speaking person with no particular interest in poetry or connection to Palestine, has heard of it, I’d guess it’s a significant cultural phenomen in the Arab world? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/73 "2025-12-22T05:09:43Z")
[High Flight](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7), by John Gillespie Magee, 1941, quoted by Reagan after the Challenger disaster, widely used after that. "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of— wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air … “Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew— And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/74 "2025-12-22T06:38:07Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Possibly but the question is not what’s the most culturally impactful modern poem, it’s what’s the most recent culturally impactful poem. All three are culturally impactful Oh okay, I thought from the OP that you were establishing somewhat more stringent criteria for “impact”, as in Star Wars or Harry Potter. I don’t think “And Still I Rise” is in that ballpark (probably “Footprints” isn’t either, but substantially closer). Still, your call. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/75 "2025-12-22T07:49:41Z")
I went to bed last night thinking “oh, I should mention ‘The Tiger,’” so, thanks for covering my shift for me. @Kimstu makes the point that memes have usurped poems, but at least in terms of cultural weight I think there is also some meaningful overlap. Both in the sense that, I am guessing, “The Tiger” has been in front of more non-student eyes than a lot of The Classics over the last decade, and in the sense that Tumblr and other social platforms sometimes discover older poems and give them new life as things to riff on (William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just To Say,” already mentioned, but Laura Gilpin’s 1976 “The Two-Headed Calf” got a [significant resurrection in the early 2020s](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/two-headed-calf-poem-by-laura-gilpin) that way too). ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/76 "2025-12-22T15:38:07Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > First thing that came to my mind also: but if we’re supposed to rule out anything that hasn’t had long term influence, doesn’t that automatically exclude anything > > Though Gorman’s piece from 2020 would could if people were still talking about it 2025. We’re using different definitions of “long term”. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And which caused no small amount of disagreement in the poetry and literature world, where many people felt that song lyrics (which is what Dylan won the award for) are distinct from what is usually termed as “literature.” YMMV, of course, and yes, one can find definitions for the word “literature” which would appear to include song lyrics. Is poetry from oral traditions not poetry? It seems very odd to me to define poetry as limited to literature. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/77 "2025-12-22T16:00:47Z")
My vote is for “And Still I Rise” but we’re dealing with some vague criteria here. > [@Kimble](#): > > From 2016 by a 6-year-old kid in DC: Yeah, that one hit weirdly hard the first time I read it. Also from 2016 is Brian Bilston’s “America Is A Gun”. > [@](#): > > **America Is A Gun** > > _England is a cup of tea._ > _France, a wheel of ripened brie._ > _Greece, a short, squat olive tree._ > _America is a gun._ > > _Brazil is football on the sand._ > _Argentina, Maradona’s hand._ > _Germany, an oompah band._ > _America is a gun._ > > _Holland is a wooden shoe._ > _Hungary, a goulash stew._ > _Australia, a kangaroo._ > _America is a gun._ > > _Japan is a thermal spring._ > _Scotland is a highland fling._ > _Oh, better to be anything_ > _than America as a gun._ > > ― Brian Bilston As a bonus, it tends to cause MAGA frothing when encountered. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/78 "2025-12-22T16:08:44Z")
Almost all culturally significant (ie widely known and long remembered) poetry since about fifty years ago will be found in song or rap lyrics. At least in the Anglosphere. Limiting it to written and/or spoken word verse is a teeny-tiny subset gifted with academic importance. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/79 "2025-12-22T16:29:52Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > probably the most significantly culturally relevant poem of a similar vintage is [that 1960-something “Footprints” thing.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem)) > > I wish Scott-Heron’s had that kind of reach but I bet not. I’ve never heard of Footprints. Not a UK thing. But I have heard of _The Revolution WNBT._ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919/80 "2025-12-22T16:41:46Z")
Footprints isn’t really a poem, anyway. It’s an essay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-culturally-significant-poem/1025919.md?page=5)